00:00is all not well across the china wall u.s media reports claim that a top chinese army general
00:07stands accused of leaking highly sensitive state secrets and nuclear weapons related secrets to
00:15the united states of america to the cia the reports in the united states claim that there
00:22are serious bribery allegations that are currently underway and underway under investigations in
00:28china against one of the senior most generals and members of the military commission the central
00:36military commission in china general zhang general zhang is second only to chinese president xi jinping
00:43one of the top generals uh in china and he was at one point of time described as one of the most
00:51trusted allies uh of uh of xi jinping however many argued that there is there is friction in china
01:00there are two camps xi jinping may appear all powerful but there is another camp that is talking
01:06about too much centralization of power uh in the hands of president xi jinping remember those images
01:13of hu jintao former president uh of of china the way uh there were some uh top officials who are he
01:20and top officials the way they were ushered out of a meeting the way there was a crackdown india today
01:26had reported how 100 generals 100 generals had been purged by president xi jinping as he consolidated his
01:34control over power and in midst of that there were reports that seemed to indicate that there could well
01:40be a coup against him at least that is what some of these reports seem to indicate so beijing has
01:45not officially confirmed these claims but the fallout is significant and questions are mounting over
01:53the pla people's liberation army the chinese army's readiness their military readiness their loyalty
01:59to xi jinping and command integrity does this indicate that china's efforts in taiwan have suffered a
02:08very major setback 2027 or 2028 or maybe it will have to be pushed back further the defense ministry
02:15announced on saturday that uh both general zhang and liu zenil uh chief of staff of cmc's joint staff
02:22department were currently under investigation then there's an editorial that's published in uh the
02:27liberation the people's liberation army daily that said general zhang and liu seriously betrayed the
02:34trust and expectations of the communist party and the cmc and fostered political and corruption problems
02:40that undermine the party's absolute leadership over the military and threatened the party's ruling
02:48foundation i want to bring in my colleague pranay upadhyay fomo on this pranay these are very grave
02:55charges leveled against someone who was second only to chinese president xi jinping in the military
03:02commission that the party's ruling foundation was impacted by corruption and challenges to absolute
03:09party leadership absolutely gaurab uh you know whether these uh these charges uh are are actually
03:16result of a spying ring or actually this is a result of a of a of a power rivalry in the in the all
03:22powerful central military commission of china but certainly this is the chink in the shining armor of
03:27uh chinese or beijing's uh the military leadership this clearly shows uh general jang uh uh yaoshi uh
03:34who's the 75 year old senior most general white currently serving as the vice chairman in the central
03:39military commission and besides that you mentioned about the name of the general uh left and general
03:44who's also a senior military official clearly this shows that you know there is something wrong in the
03:49central military commission and which is under investigation and the charges are very serious you
03:54know if you go by the military by the media reports this shows that uh these uh these people are being
03:58implicated for selling the nuclear secrets of china to to united states uh this clearly shows that uh
04:05you know there is uh there there is uh you know uh uh there is uh infiltration or rather there is
04:11in the information uh leakage from the uh the uh from the central military commission of china this also
04:17shows that something is is wrong uh at the highest leadership level uh because uh general jang at the highest
04:24leadership level as you point out and very significantly because general zhang uh was once
04:29considered very close to president xi jinping uh then there was the stock of two rival factions uh
04:35within the communist party there was anger over over centralization of power by president xi jinping
04:41and that there was an intense pushback but this downfall this sudden downfall this in a way marks the
04:47most serious most dramatic uh move against a top general even though india today had carried that
04:53report uh on chakravue uh that 100 generals and that's amazing in any country's history if 100
05:02generals have been purged in china that would indicate that president xi jinping wants to be all powerful
05:10but somehow he doesn't seem to have the trust and confidence of those he commands
05:16absolutely and we have seen not only uh you know the senior generals were removed at the time when
05:20our president xi jinping wanted to consolidate his position even at the at the political level we
05:25have seen that you know how uh uh the premier leaker chang uh was uh was relieved and in fact he was
05:31succeeded by the all loyalist lee chang who's currently serving as the premier of china and how he closed
05:37the ring how he plays the trusted people but if general uh general general jang uh yoshi is being
05:43implicated this uh once he as you uh as you also mentioned that he was once considered as the most
05:48trusted guy uh the one of the senior official of the central military commission then uh these are
05:54the serious question to be you know pondered upon in the in the leadership of china that you know uh if
06:00they are being implicated then either the cia if the allegation cia has penetrated their uh their
06:06their senior military system and if they are able to extract or there is an intense power struggle
06:12within china it would indicate pranay that there's an intense power struggle and blame corruption or
06:19blame selling secrets to cia and then purge them massive purge that's been on in china pranay keep
06:26tracking that story i will come out come back to you for more as this story develops this will remain
06:32one of our top focus stories here on india today a massive purge in the chinese army of course there
06:39are also reports that seem to indicate that even soldiers they want loyalty to the country and not
06:45loyalty to the party as the case is in china but more on that in the days and weeks ahead that is all i
06:52have for you on this five live special broadcast very thanks for watching
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